Book description
'Ever since I have inhabited old age, I have looked and listened,
mostly in vain, for news of what it is like for others who inhabit it
too. Naturally, I'm interested in its well-known depredations, the
physical and mental ones that people in their forties and fifties so
publicly dread. And who would not delight in the theatrical props of old
age - the pills and sticks, the shrieking hearing aids and the tricks
for countering the loss of names and threads and glasses. But that's not
all. I have a fond hope that in old age there may be new kinds of time
and of pleasure, perhaps even new kinds of vitality, and that, though we
forget and muddle and fail to hear things, there may be moments when we
truly understand what's going on for the first time. But then I've
always been a late developer.' Deeply thoughtful, wry and resilient,
this fascinating and absorbing book about growing older is a
life-enhancing look at what all of us - if we are lucky - can aspire to.
Jane Miller first worked in publishing, then as an English teacher and
finally at the London University Institute of Education. She retired as
Professor Emeritus in 1998.
